iPhone5 Delayed In South Africa, Disappoints Consumers

Apple’s iPhone 5 has been delayed in South Africa, this has disappointed many customers and fans alike.

ITWeb first reported that customers had delays and no deliveries, after the iPhone5 first went on sale in South Africa late last year. When the device was launched, there were lines of about 100 people waiting for the sixth generation smartphone, several stores admitted having less than twenty phones in stock.

A local distributor for the group called Core said that although there is an increased demand for the new device, they weren’t certain how high demand was. Core explained the following to News24, “iStore has seen unprecedented demand for iPhone 5 since launch, both in terms of customers purchasing for cash as well as on cellular contracts. iStore has seen far better availability of the product compared to previous launches and we expect to have good availability going forward.”

For those in SA who can get their hands on the latest iPhone, there is some good news. By the end of this month, users may be able to use LTE on their iPhone 5, if Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS updates and and network tests go according to plan. There is a speculation that the upcoming release of iOS 6.1 may include a list of LTE approved carriers like MTN and Vodacom.

This model supports LTE in both 1,800MHz and 2,1ooMHz ranges. The former is used for Vodacom and MTN, the latter is used by Cell C. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has yet to enable the function. They need to make an agreement with the carriers before they can even start tests at both ends.

LTE service would improve the speeds of data usage in South African cities.

At press time, there was no report or comment on the matter from either Vodacom or MTN. South African consumers will have to wait and see if the rumor is true.